LIMA PROTEST

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Demo in Support of Gaza

Between 400 and 500 people gathered tonight in Parque Combate de Abtao, in Lima's San Isidro district, and marched half a block down the street to rally before the building housing the Israeli embassy in order to protest against the aggression taking place toward the population of Gaza. (Photos below)

The crowd chanted in support of Gaza and for a free Palestine, and demanded the closure of the embassy and that Netanyahu be put on trial.

The large contingent of Arab-Peruvians was joined by others concerned by the recent events, many individually it semeed, although contingents from some organized groups did show up.

There was an announced march to the embassy from the neighboring district of Miraflores, set to start at 6 pm, but by 7:30 it had not arrived at the embassy and no mention of it has been made in the media.

There was also a rally in the city of Ica, four hours south of Lima by road, and at the rally in Lima it was reported that demos had also taken place in the southern Andean cities of Arequipa and Juliaca.

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Members or sympathizers of the following left groups were spotted at the Lima event:
- Patria Roja's youth section
- Student Integration (Integración Estudiantíl, IE)
- Land and Freedom movement (Tierra y Libertad)
- Alfa y Omega
- People United (Pueblo Unido)
- Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT)
- Fatah

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Monday, July 22, 2013

Protest in rejection of Congressional shennanigans

Tonight I joined thousands of others downtown in a protest against the recent actions of the Peruvian Congress. On the 18th, the nation watched via a live TV feed as the four parties with the largest share of representatives in Congress, which included the party of former president and dictator, Alberto Fujimori (who is serving prison time for graft, corruption, and human rights abuses), and that of the current president, Ollanta Humala- consumated a political deal between them to get their members elected to head the Central Reserve Bank, the Constitutional Court, and the Public Defender's Office.

The four parties -Gana Perú, Fuerza Popular, Perú Posible, and Alianza Por el Gran Cambio- pushed through a vote for the candidates in a block, instead of on a one-by-one basis, as required by the Congressional regulations in place since 1975. As a result, the candidates selected based, not on personal and professional qualifications, but on quotas set in backroom partisan wheeling and dealing. In fact when one Congresswoman tried to abstain, she browbeaten into voting in favor, on the grounds that she "had to agree" as her party had a "political agreement" to which she was supposedly bound. To make things worse -with the exception of those elected to the Central Reserve Bank- the elected were perhaps among the worst candidates, lacking in relevant experience, having conflicts of interest, and having been connected to or defended human rights abuses and corrupt practices.

The people's rejection was immediate and loud. Almost every newspaper, magazine, newsprogram, NGO, labor union, political movement, student group, and others spoke out against the repartija - the divvying up- in Congress. That very night there were spontaneous protests in Lima.

There was another demo called for tonight -much of it via social media, such as Facebook, and #22J and #tomalacalle - as a show of rejection and a means of pressuring those elected into stepping aside, and Congress into approving an extraordinary session for Wednesday to anul the election and hold another, clean one.

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Spotted at the demo: Partido Comunista del Peru - Patria Roja; Juventud Comunista del Peru "JotaCe" (Patria Roja's youth league); Partido Comunista Peruano ("Unidad"); Coordinadora Nacional Anticorrupcion; Movimiento Homosexual de Lima; Integracion Estudiantil; Asociacion de Cristianos Revolucionarios "Alfa y Omega"; Partido Socialista; Movimiento de Afirmacion Social; Frente Amplio coalition; students from Universidad Nacional Federico Villareal, Universidad Nacional de Educación Enrique Guzmán y Valle "La Cantuta", and the Catholic University; APRA;

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

"No to impunity! We wont forget, we won't forgive!"

On Friday, the 20th, an instance of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Javier Villa Stein, hearing matters related to some of the accusations against the members of the Fujimori dictatorship's notorious Grupo Colina death squad issued its verdict.

The members of the death squad -formed from among serving Army personnel- operated out of the military head quarters in Lima, and was commanded directly by then president Alberto Fujimori through his aide and spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos. The Grupo Colina members were later shown to be responsible, and convicted, in the torture, murder, and disappearance of journalist Pedro Yauri, union leader Pedro Huilca, nine students and a professor La Cantuta University, fifteen people -including an 8-year old child- in the neighborhood of Barrios Altos, and nine peasants in the locality of Santa in Ancash.

The Villa Stein decision found -in contradiction of an earlier Supreme Court verdict- that the crimes of the Grupo Colina did not constitute crimes against humanity (crimenes de lesa humanidad) because such "can only be perpetrated against civilians" and the death squad was formed "to kill terrorists" and terrorists "are not civilians". In other words, what matters is not the crimes but the supposed intent. Morover, if there is no crime against humanity then there can have been no conspiracy to commit crimes against humanity.

The decision thereby reduced the convictions to ones for murder and opened the door to reductions on sentencing and, and even completions of sentences from time already served, and potentially could serve as a mechanism for the release from prison of Alberto Fujimori.

The decision has been roundly condemned -from the President's office on down- as the details and implications of it have become clear, and Villa Stein has come under suspicion due to a series of changes made in the composition of the bench in the course of the proceedings.

Human rights groups and the victims' families called for a show of indignation in front of the Palace of Justice for Monday evening, a call which was assisted by La Republica newspaper announcing the demonstration on its front page.

Spotted at the protest: CGTP, Integracion Estudiantil, delegation from La Cantuta University, Coordinadora Contra la Impunidad, human rights coalition, Estudio para la Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer, Lima Homosexual Movement, Lesbianas Batukeras, victims' relatives, etc.